Viva Espana!

We are back from Spain and we had an amazing time! We spent a week down South, hoping to take advantage of the balmy and warm climate that Spain is known for- only to hit the country during a cold and rainy spell.... oh well- I'm beginning to think that the only holidays you should expect good weather from are those taken either south of the equator or in Hawaii & the Caribbean. You don't go to Europe for the weather.

So, to give an overview- we spent 3 nights in Barcelona, 1 night in Toledo (which is about 60 mins outside of Madrid), and 2 nights in Madrid. Here are the highlights:

Barcelona: We loved it here, it was gorgeous, bustling, and there was plenty to do. We saw a Flamenco show, visited the Sagrada Familia, ate paella and tapas, drank Rioja like it was water, and got accostomed to the later eating times of the country (Lunch between 1-2, dinner at 10pm at the earliest). We window shopped, walked our tushies off, and took in a siesta every day. JP's spanish was perfect and helped us get through Spain- but here in Barcelona most people spoke English and Catalan- a regional dialect and as different from Spanish as Italian is. So, at times when we spoke Spanish, they answered us in English- it was weird. Barcelona was much more touristy than we planned on- we heard more Americans on the streets than locals- so a couple times we wandered outside the main tourist areas to get a little bit more culture. We saw enough fanny packs and Teva sandals to last us awhile here. View of Barcelona from the Park Guell:

On Tuesday we took a train to Toledo- which is a little medival town built on top of a large hill surrounded by a river. It used to be the capital of Spain a long time ago. The city was old, gorgeous, and the people were really friendly. Here we just got lost in the streets- reading a map was useless here- and enjoyed a nice dinner and quiet evening. We woke up Wednesday morning, had a quick breakfast, took a tram ride around the city and we were off back to Madrid. Here is a view of Toledo from the tram ride we took:

Madrid is Spain's capital and central Madrid reminded me nothing of Barcelona- except for the ridiculously intricate architecture and busyness. I loved it here- more than I thought I would. A trip to Spain is worth it just to see the architecture- and as I went through our pictures I thought to myself that we didn't take enough pics of the buildings and such. However, there really isn't a way to capture it all with a camera. You just have to see it. We did a walking tour in Madrid, saw some of the big sights, and met with JP's cousin Nico who lives there. He and his girlfriend Maria took us to dinner on Wednesday night to a "muy atentico" establishment and enjoyed tapas and wine. It was great to meet Nico- he has lived in Madrid for almost 4 years and was the only member of the family I didn't get to meet when we went to Argentina in 2006. He was friendly and fun and I think JP had a great time catching up. Maria and Nico's English was pretty good- but I also realized through dinner that my Spanish was getting much better as I required limited translation. Also, at Nico & Maria's request- I spoke English back - they loved it when we spoke English (go figure) but JP stuck with his Spanish.

The highlight of Madrid was our last night when we embarked on a tapas crawl. We took some direction from Rick Steves (love his Spain guide by the way) and by the third stop we veered off and did our own thing. I tried to capture the places in the pics, but as I had more wine I got sidetracked and forgot to snap the pics. It was fun though- and we enjoyed our last night of tapas before heading home on Friday. Here is a view of Madrid from our hotel's rooftop bar:

Overall- we loved it and are already planning a return trip- this time away from the beaten path of the major cities and we'd like to head to the countryside and possibly the coast for an even more authentic experience! You can check out all our pictures by clicking the link up on the top left of our page.

On another topic: our GEP family grew by one last week when our friends Nicole & Darren welcomed their new daughter to the world- Alexandra Ludwig was born last Friday night. Baby & parents are doing great- and I'll post pictures from that after our visit later today.

Tonight we welcome guest #4 in the last month- Dave Placek, our OC friend who now lives in NYC. He is in town attending a friend's wedding and is stopping over for a few nights to hang out with us and catch up. We head to work tomorrow for four days and then on Friday we depart again- this time for Phoenix & OC- and we can't wait to come home for a week!

Hope to see most of you on our visits home!